Saturday, April 12, 2014

There is a view that the
Brazilian model of sugar cane based ethanol is what we should follow for
transportation. But is ethanol a viable alternative fuel for India as it is for Brazil ? India first promoted an ethanol
blending policy in 2002, makingit
mandatory for oil providers to blendoil
with five percent ethanol.This policy
never took off since there are fundamental problems with it which cannot be
wished away with the pronouncement of an inadequately thought through
diktat.India’s production of ethanol is
based on sugarcane. Its production of a little over 2000 million liters
annually is claimed mainly by two sectors, the manufacturers ofIMFL(Indian Made Foreign Liquor ) andthe chemical industry. The ethanol production
in India
is simply not enough to satisfy the demands of the liquor and chemical industry
and also provide ethanol for five percent blending . This and the fact that
sugar cane production fluctuates greatly from year to year, arethe principal reasons whythe government’sethanol blending policy has not taken off.

Brazil’s ethanol production
stands at about 23 to 24 billion litres annually ,roughly ten times what India produces
. This is more than enough tosatisfy
itsdiverse domesticneeds, divertethanol as fueland leave over
enough to export to other countries like India.Brazil with a land mass of over 8.5
million square km is more than twice the size of the Indian land mass at 3.2
million square km. The population of Brazil
at 198 million, is a fraction of India’s 1.24 billion and growing
population which needs substantial amounts ofland and water to produce food.

Most significantly, Brazil’s water
resources are enormous, of central importancefor a water guzzling crop like sugar cane.To compare at the level of river basin
volume, as an indicator of water availability, Brazil
has a total river basin volume ofover
11 million square km whereasIndia’s river
basin volumestands at some 3 million
square km.The fact is that India’s sugar
cane production is largely based on ground water which is being overexploited,
with many ground water blocks having become critical.

In addition to its huge
advantage with natural resources,Brazil also has a very small population compared
to India.
It is a percentage of this small populationthat is the consumerof ethanol
biofuels.India’slarge population basewouldhave a much greater demand for ethanol as fuel . Can India divert
more land and waterto increase sugar
cane production for ethanolto satisfy
its ethanol needswithout coming into
conflict with its food and nutrition needs ?

To suggest that India should follow Brazil’s
ethanol example, is to turn a blind eye to India’s ground realities. Most
notably, India’s grinding
poverty ,its shocking levels of hunger and malnutrition (India is home
to the largest number of hungry and malnourished people in the world), must
force us to stop and reflect on the way we should use our land and water.
Should these critical resources be used togrow more food or should the land and water be diverted to the
production of sugarcane for ethanol for cars.

Clearly, ethanol cannot
be a long term or sustainableoption for
India,
nor for that matter , can Jatropha derived diesel .Any source of alternative
fuel that will work ,can only be one
that doesnot divert land and water from
the production of food andmaintaining
the integrityof ecosystems and
biodiversity. However, before introducing an alternative plan, we must realize
that the most logical way for India
to reduce its dependence on imported oil andminimize the pollution from fossil fuel combustion is to rationalize its
system of transportation.The proposal
favoring public transport over private transport will always remain valid
because it is the only sustainable way of transportation. The bane of our
transportation system is following the American model of personal motorized
transportwithout having America’s
resources .The number of personal cars
that are allowed on to the road every month, in one city alone,is unsustainable for the planet andarecipe for global disaster.

India has access to at least twosources of viable energy for transportation.
The first is solar energy , abundant and free which remainspractically unexploited barring primitive
solar heatersand solar light panels.
The other really promising option is more high tech, to produce alcohol by
fermenting algae.Algal oil and alcohol
along with solar generated power is the way forward for alternative fuels.
Algae can produce up to 300 times more oil per unit area than crops such as
sugarcane or Jatropha. As algae have a short life cycle, they can be harvested
every1–10 days. Sugarcane takes the
best lands, masses of waterand blocks
the farmer’s land for almost a year.

Algae can be grown in open
ponds or bioreactors which are just plastic or glass containers through which
nutrient rich water is pumped. The water can be brackish or wastewater, fresh
water is not required. And algae yield two types of biofuels. The
lipid, or oily part can be used to produce biodiesel andthe carbohydrate in the algae biomass can be
fermented into bioethanol and biobutanol. This is a promising way to move
ahead.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Biodiversity and traditional
seeds are being rapidly lost in all countries of the world. The reason for this
erosion of genetic diversity is the promotion of intensive agriculture relying
overwhelmingly on high yielding varieties. The Green Revolution is the greatest
culprit for genetic erosion. Government policies while actively promoting the
Green Revolution, paid little attention to the conservation of traditional
seeds even though the two could have gone hand in hand.

Nevertheless there are many
farmers in developing countries that still cultivate traditional varieties,
though they too are shifting to high yielding varieties when they get a chance.
Farmers in rainfed areas, marginal lands not suited to intensification or
special eco niches like regions with brackish water, such as the Sunderbans,
continue to rely on traditional varieties.

Such farmers maintain a number of
different varieties of many crops, including staples like rice. India
which is the birth place of rice was once home to almost 200000 varieties, with
a range of different properties. Farmers maintained these because they provided
a choice of seeds to cope with different weather conditions like the timing of
the monsoon, type of soil, location of the farm etc.

Apart from farmers who maintain
traditional crop varieties because it helps them adapt to local ecosystems and
weather conditions, there are also those who maintain a diversity of cultivars
out of pure interest and passion. Called “Custodian Farmers”, these are the
real seed saviors. They develop & maintain
agricultural biodiversityand also share this with other farmers. These
seed saviors are high on skills and unlike the farmers who practice intensive
agriculture, they are knowledgeable
about their varieties and know how and where these cultivars can be adapted.

Farmers who conserve a variety
of seeds automatically become an integral part of the informal seed system
since with their knowledge,they can recommend
varieties for specific conditions. They are aware of local preferences and
promote the conservation and use of local diversity among their friends and neighbors
for the sheer joy of it. Such sharing of seeds and planting material like
cuttings, runners, buds and grafts is
not monetized within the locality although planting material may be made
available to outsiders for a price.

The fruit orchards, especially
of mangoes, belonging to the landed aristocracy were a treasure trove of
diversity. Mangoes of different colors and shapes, tastes and aromas have been
conserved in these orchards for generations. The saviors and keepers of this
diversity were more the orchard keepers and gardeners than their masters.

Seed saviors are found in all
kinds of agro ecosystems, usually in tropical countries where they are conserving
seeds of all kinds of cereals, fruits and vegetables. Now, the trend to save
old varieties is becoming increasingly popular in the industrial countries too as
people have become wary of the consolidation of the seed industry in the hands
of a few companies. These companies armed
with seed patents are pushing a few commercially popular varieties, neglecting
the rest. Seed saver networks have sprung up in Europe and the USA,
most specializing in the conservation of heritage seeds which are the older
varieties that have fallen into disuse.

National and International Seed
Saviors

Not just individual farmers and
communities, a chain of national and international gene banks have been
established as global seed saviours. For example, the International Rice
Research Institute(IRRI) in Los Banos , Philippines
conserves all the rice varieties of the world, as Cymmit in Mexico does for
wheat. The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas
(ICARDA) conserves over 135,000 seed samples of wheat, barley, oats and other
cereals; food legumes such as faba bean, chickpea, lentil and field pea; forage
and rangelean crops, as well as the wild relatives of each of these species.
Similarly ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics) in Hyderabad saves several thousand seed samples of chickpea,
pigeonpea, ground nut, pearl millet, sorghum and little millets.

Svalbard

The world’s most dramatic seed
saving set up, atleast its mosttalked
of, lies in the Norwegian town of Svalbard ,
north of the Arctic Circle. Often referred to
as the ‘Doomsday Vault’, the Svalbard seed
bank is supposed to protect the world’s seed collection from the most terrible
disasters that can befall , hence the name “Doomsday Vault’. The Svalbard bank
as it is planned will eventually conserve a sample from all the collections
currently housed in more than 1400 gene banks across the world. The reasoning
is that if disaster strikes any one or more of the banks, the seed material
will not be lost since it will be backed up in the bomb proof bunker built some
400 feet inside a Norwegian mountain covered in permafrost.

Chang La

To match the effort in Europe, Indian authorities are going ahead with the
construction of a similar permafrost gene- seed bank in Chang La in Ladakh. At
a height of over 17,500 feet, The Chang La gene bank is about 75km from Leh and
is under the stewardship of the Defense Institute of High Altitude Research.
Intended to be a national conservation centre initially, it is proposed to make
available the Chang La gene bank for the seed collections of developing and
developed countries. Chang La's permafrost conditions, lowhumidity and temperatures generally below -
18 degrees Celsius are ideally suited to conserving seeds at low temperature
without the energy costs.

More than apocalyptic
calamities like cyclones, hurricanes or bombs , the world’s genetic material
and its seeds are threatened steadily by a warming planet and consequent change
in the climate. So saving seed collections in Svalbard
and Chang La isof great significance.

Gene Campaign as Seed Savior

In 2008, Gene Campaign along with the farmers that
it works with in Jharkhand, received India’s Genome Savior Award. This
award recognizes seed saviors, those who conserve traditional seed varieties.
Gene Campaign has been working in Jharkhand and Uttarakhand for the last
several years, conserving traditional varieties of rice, millets, legumes,
vegetables and oilseeds. A special focus is the conservation of rice since India is its Center of Origin
and the place where the greatest genetic diversity of rice is found.

Traditional crop varieties from farmer’s fields
are collected and the knowledge of the farm family is documented along with the
seed sample.The Gene Campaign
collection consists of about 900 rice varieties from Jharkhand, Orissa,
Chattisgarh, West Bengal and Assam.
The seed samples are scientifically processed and conserved in community
managed, field level gene-seed banks.

Zero Energy Gene Seed Banks

Unlike the cold gene banks of
the formal system, Gene Campaign’s ,Zero Energy Gene Seed Banks have no energy costs.Because
thesebanks are located in the village,
they are owned by the people. Village youth committees supervised by village
elders run the banks.. The seed in the bank is accessed every season by the
farmers who return three times the seed they take,when their harvest comes in. The core
collection is multiplied in carefully designed plots in farmers’ fields,
monitored by trained village youth and Gene Campaign staff.

Seed renewal to maintain viability

Viability of the seeds is
maintained by growing them out each year and returning the fresh seed to the
Banks. This routine exposes the varieties to the current climate, helping them
to adjust and adapt. The seed material that is returned to the bank after every
grow-out season is adapted to the environment, which includes the climate as
well as pests and disease. The material frozen in the cold gene bank does not
get a chance to adapt to the local climate and when it is taken out at a time
of crisis, it may or may not have the adaptive capacity to provide an efficient
crop under the prevailing conditions.

In the short term the Gene-Seed banks serve
as a seed source for farmers who can access seed adapted to local conditions.
They are also a repository of Farmer Varieties, which are being registered with
the National Plant Variety Authority.

Seed Saviors are specialists

Rather than just conservers of
diversity, many farmers who conserve traditional seeds and planting materials,
see themselves as specialists and tend to conserve varieties with unique
traits. It is a good thing they are recognized as leaders by their communities
and accorded the respect that they deserve. It is high time the scientific
community accorded them similar respect and provided them a place in decision
making about agriculture and the direction it should take.

If the formal system can find
the wisdom to support the women and men that conserve special genetic
diversity, it could become the beneficiary of immense wisdom and a cornucopia
of genes that will keep food production viable in the face of all kinds of
challenges. It will also make our food baskets rich and diverse and make
available to us an assortment of delicious and nutritious foods.

About Me

Dr. Suman Sahai, who has had a distinguished scientific career in the field of genetics, is a recipient of the Padma Shri,the Borlaug Award, Outstanding Woman Achiever awards, the BirbalSahni Gold Medal and the Order of the Golden Ark .
Dr. Sahai is founder Chairperson of the Gene Campaign which is a leading research and advocacy organization, working on issues relating to food, nutrition and livelihoods. She has published extensively on science and policy issues and is a member of several national policy forums on scientific research and education, biodiversity and environment, biotechnology and bioethics as well as intellectual property rights.
Dr Sahai chaired India’s Planning Commission Task Force on ‘Agro biodiversity and Genetically Engineered Organisms’, for the XIth Plan. She was a member of the Steering Committee of the National Biodiversity Board , the Expert Committee on Biotechnology Policy and the Bioethics Committee of the Indian Council of Medical Research.She has served on the Research Advisory Committees of national scientific institutions.
Dr Sahai can be reached at www.genecampaign.org and mail@genecampaign.org